Femke Ahlers

Femke started her DPhil in Population Health in October 2020, using genomic epidemiology to study bacterial meningitis in the group of Professor Angela Brueggemann. Femke’s research focuses on Streptococcus pneumoniae, an encapsulated bacterial pathogen that can cause devastating human disease, which disproportionately affects young children in the African meningitis belt. She uses bioinformatics to study large genomic datasets. Her DPhil is supported by the Oxford-MRC Doctoral Training Partnership and by the Nuffield Department of Population Health.

Prior to commencing her DPhil studies, Femke studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, graduating in June 2020 (First Class Honours). She was awarded the Programme for Research in Science and Engineering scholarship to conduct research at Harvard University in the summer of 2019. As she applied to Cambridge when she was 16 years old, she was given a deferred entry and spent her gap year studying the first year of a Bachelor of Medicine at Radboud University in the Netherlands (cum laude).